The next Map Pack for Halo 4 is set to arrive on April 8th. The new Map Pack is called the “The Castle Map Pack” and will add three new multiplayer maps, as well as a new 6 vs 6 playlist that will be focused for this DLC Map Pack.

The new maps are called Daybreak, Outcast, and Perdition. The maps tend to focus on objective game types that offer vehicle use, which should make those happy that like this sort of setup.

Halo 4 fans will be able to purchase the Castle Map Pack starting on April 8th for 800 Microsoft Points or about $10 for those scoring at home. For those on the Halo 4 Season Pass, The Castle Map Pack is the third and last map pack that was included in the Halo 4 War Games Season Pass. It is unknown at this time if this will be the last release of DLC for Halo 4 or not. No one is talking about that, but we doubt it at this point.

Microsoft is on track to reach its sales target of $300 million for Halo 4. If successful, this will be the most successful launch of Halo in the history of the franchise and the biggest entertainment launch of the year to date, claims Microsoft.

Within 24 hours after Halo 4 was released, the title was able to rack up an astounding $220 million in sales globally. The $220 million passes both Halo 3 and Halo Reach. With the $220 million on launch day, this brings the franchise to an incredible total of $3.38 billion in sales since the launch of the first Halo title.

If that isn’t impressive enough, Halo 4 also smashed the record for the largest number of players in the franchise history in the first five days, with over 4 million players. These players played a lot of Halo 4, combining for 31.4 million hours of game play.

According to reports, Microsoft claims that Halo 4 was the most expensive game ever produced, and reviews have proven that the money was well spent. The company is excited by the strong showing of Halo 4, and sources tell us that they are expecting a banner holiday season for the Xbox 360 and associated software titles.

Microsoft is set to make Halo 4 the biggest ever midnight launch with more than 10,000 stores to be part of the festivities. Retailers will begin to sell the title in over 40 countries at 12:01am on November 6th.

In addition to the regular retailers opening their doors at midnight, Microsoft is throwing parties at 30 marquee launch events around the world for one of the most highly anticipated titles to be released this year. Sites in Seattle, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Sydney are just some of the cities that will have marquee launch events.

Early reviews of the title are already starting to tumble in, with reviewers seeming to be in agreement that Halo 4 is a highly recommended title that is a must buy, with very high review scores.

Phil Spencer of Microsoft Studios claims that Halo 4 is the most expensive game ever produced by Microsoft. No other game even comes close, according to Spencer.

In a recent interview with Polygon, Spencer claims that Halo 4 is the “most important entertainment product in the company.” Halo 4 is headed to global release on November 6th exclusively for the Xbox 360, and early indications are that it could be the best of the franchise yet; and could be poised to break previous sales records for the franchise.

Microsoft has a lot riding on Halo 4 with the creation of the new 343 Industries, which has become the developer of the franchise after the departure of Bungee after finishing Halo 3, and returning to an independent studio once again. Fans had expressed significant reservations over how Halo would be in the future and if 343 could carry on the tradition of the franchise, but early looks at the game seem to have washed those fears away, with players being very excited about the upcoming release of Halo 4.

Read more with Phil Spencer and learn about the play testing of Halo 4 here.

To no one’s surprise, Halo 4 will have a Game Pass. The Halo 4 Game Pass will get buyers access to the three War Games map packs at a 15% discount.

The map packs are due to be released for Halo 4 in December, February, and April. Those that purchase the War Games pass will also get two bonus in-game items, which are two helmets (the Scanner and the Strider) along with a unique in-game Falcon emblem.

The War Games map pack is part of the Halo 4 Limited Edition package at no charge, or you can opt in for the War Games pass at $24.99 or 2,000 Microsoft Points, which is a 15% savings over buying them one at a time.

With news of a leaked version of Halo 4 that is running rampant on torrent sites everywhere comes news that Microsoft is less than happy that the leaked version is so widespread. If you happen to be playing or thinking about playing this torrent-acquired leaked version of Halo 4, we suggest that you think again if you value your Xbox Live account.

Sources tell us that Microsoft is swinging the ban hammer with a vengeance to deal with those who have chosen to break the rules and download and play Halo 4. The Microsoft Xbox Live Enforcement team is aggressively issuing permanent ban notifications to offenders, citing “pre-release title play” as the reason for the permanent ban from Xbox Live.

When a permanent ban is issued by the Microsoft Xbox Live enforcement team, your Xbox Live privileges will not be reinstated and, of course, you also lose all of your gamer scores. According to sources, Microsoft isn’t playing around here; and when you get caught, you are going to be banned for life and that’s it. No word on how many have been banned for pre-release title play, but we suspect the numbers are pretty large considering how easy it is to acquire Halo 4 from the torrents.

Microsoft has announced that Halo 4’s multiplayer has components on the second disc included in the Halo 4 package will have to be installed in order to be played. The data on disc 2 for the multiplayer will require 8GB of storage. This means it will not work on Xbox 360 4GB systems without additional storage.

The additional storage can come in the form of a hard drive, of course, or a USB flash drive up to 16GB that is compatible with the system. With the low cost of compatible 16GB USB flash drives these days, it really should not be that big of a deal. In the case of Xbox 360 owners who have the non-slim version of the console, used hard drives in sizes from 20GB to 250GB are in abundance at all price points.

According to Microsoft, the “extensive suite of multiplayer features” made the installation necessary, but it should not create that much of a hardship to Xbox 360 4GB console owners wanting to play Halo 4 in multiplayer mode, given the lower costs associated with USB flash drives or used hard drives. In fact, the numbers of users that don’t have additional storage is likely to be fewer than one might think.

This is not the first time that we have seen additional content required to be loaded on a USB Flash Drive or the hard drive to get the most out of a game. By today’s standards, the 8GB of storage on an Xbox 360 disc is small compared to the 50GB offered by the Blu-ray on the PlayStation 3, or the 25GB offered by the upcoming Wii U. However, Microsoft has already addressed the situation once by maximizing the space that developers have to use on the disc when they introduced the new disc format in one of the previous updates. We are doubtful that the news will move the meter much, as users will be willing to buy a flash drive or a used drive in order to play Halo 4 in multiplayer.

343 Industries and Microsoft have confirmed that Halo 4 has gone gold and is headed for release.

Halo 4, as you know by now, is the first non-Bungie developed Halo title. It is the first that is being developed by 343 Industries, which is part of the Microsoft Studio family.

Halo 4, which is headed for release on November 6th in North America and November 9th in Europe, claims to be the biggest and best Halo release in the franchise. While claims are nice, many are interested to see where 343 will go with this new story that sees Master Chief come back as a cornerstone part of the new story line.

With all of the issues with fake and bogus sites on the Internet claiming that they can get you access to the Halo 4 beta, it was no surprise when 343 Industries head, Frank O’ Connor, made things clear about a potential Halo 4 public beta when answering a number of questions posed by Halo fans.

O’ Conner said, “There are no plans for Halo 4 to receive a public beta.” We are not sure that he could have made it any clearer.

While Microsoft has battled a number of these fake and bogus Halo 4 beta sites, it seems that despite its best efforts they have only been able to make a small dent in getting control of these domain names and in getting the word out. Recently, Microsoft was able to get control of Halo4beta.net, and it has filed a complaint against Halo4beta.biz.

In the meantime, O’Conner seems hopeful that making the statement that there will be “no public beta” will circulate and help save people the hassle of getting involved with some of the scam sites.

Microsoft says that a would-be cinematic effects reel that has been making the rounds as “leaked” is a fake. In addition, Microsoft also claims that the news that this reel reveals a November 21st, 2012 launch date is likewise false.

The video claims to be a collection of special effects and does seem to make a number of Halo references. There is no Master Chief or other recognizable Halo characters or places in the video, from what we can tell. While the style is similar to the E3 Halo 4 teaser, that is about all we can say.

Sources have whispered to us that we should expect Halo 4 to be unveiled prior to E3 at the upcoming Xbox Spring Showcase Event that starts this week. Of course, this is only a rumor, but Microsoft has confirmed that you should stay tuned for more Halo 4 information; however, they don’t give any clue as to when it might be coming.